Rae
by CocraSeacht
Summary: Season 4 episode 24: Amplification. Morgan visits Reid in the hospital only to find someone else there whom he did not know. Rae, at first unknown to the team, slowly becomes a huge part of their lives. But will they ever truly know her? Nobody is perfect and Rae is not always as perky as she seems. Cautiously Rated T for future chapters. Undecided on pairing. Reviews are welcome
1. Chapter 1

Derek Morgan sighed. It had been a long day at the BAU. A virus had been released in an unsuspecting park and twelve people had died from the anthrax-like disease. Two more had died when the affects were tested in a book store. They had solved the case and arrested Brown but Reid had contracted the virus and was now in hospital. The team had been informed he had been administered the cure but was still resting.

Morgan was going to sit and wait for him to wake up. Reid was the youngest of the team. He was especially young considering the usual age of FBI agents. The entire team looked out for each other but they kept an extra eye out for their resident genius. Genius or no, the kid had had a difficult upbringing. Although his brain was impressive, when he first joined he had no experience in the field. Morgan and the rest of the team were there to help and watch as he excelled at his job. He provided a new perspective and had formed a bond with all of them.

Reaching Reid's room, Morgan walked in the door and stopped. There was already someone in the room. A woman was sitting in the chair on the left side of Reid's bed with her feet propped on the side of the bed, no shoes on, just socks. Her face was turned away from him rested against the back of the chair. Morgan was unsure of how to proceed. He knew it was none of the team; they had passed on their greetings and well-wishes when he had informed them of his intentions to go to the hospital. Reid also had no family. He was an only child and both his parents were in Nevada. Reid never mentioned any friends he was particularly close to but he wasn't overly talkative about his life in general.

Before Morgan could decide on an appropriate course of action, the person spoke:

"You can come in, you know" the woman said conversationally. "I only ask that you don't eat the pot of jelly on his locker. I already called dibs", she continued lightly. Morgan walked into the room slowly and sat in the chair on the right Reid's bed. Reid was still asleep. He had an IV attached to his arm and he looked tired and paler than usual. Nothing too serious though.

Turning his attention away from Reid, he looked at the girl sitting across from him. He observed her, hoping to find something that would suggest who she was. He could see her earphones plugged into a black phone. Her eyes were closed as she, by his assumption, concentrated on her music. Her thick, brown curly hair was pulled back off her face into a ponytail. She was wearing black skinny jeans and an over-large navy hoody. A pair of black converse trainers was left beside the chair. She was a young woman, around Reid's age. She must be close to Reid, if she wasn't she wouldn't visit him and she definitely wouldn't be comfortable enough to put her feet on the bed. She wasn't American; at least it was unlikely she was. Looking at the pot of jello on Reid's night stand that she had 'dibs' on, she had called it jelly: not American. He had not been able to look for an accent. She hadn't spoken enough for him to tell.

"You know", she spoke again, breaking him from his thoughts, "It's considered rude to stare". She grinned at him. She pulled the earphones out of her ears, removed her feet from the bed and sat up. She had a round, kind face that sparkled with amusement.

"I guess if you _really_ want the jelly, you can have it." She told him after a minute. Morgan chuckled at her. "So, who are you?" she asked bluntly, but not rudely. She sounded curious.

"Derek Morgan", he answered, holding out a hand to shake hers. "I work with Spencer". She shook his hand and nodded.

"So, BAU, huh? I bet that's just a huge bundle of laughs. I'm eating this jelly", she said picking up the jello and plastic spoon, "if you want it, you'll have to fight me for it". She mock glared at him but then just grinned. "Not that I'd stand a chance. You're huge". Morgan grinned at her. He was really starting to like this girl, whoever she was. As if reminding himself he didn't know her he asked:

"So who are you?" Morgan asked turning her question back on her as she peeled the lid off the jello and started eating it.

"Well Mr Morgan", she started but he interrupted.

"Please, call me Derek". Mr Morgan just sounded weird.

"But shouldn't I be respectful to a big, government agent?" She asked playfully, her eyes wide in exaggerated innocence. Morgan chuckled. At that time, Reid started to wake up. He blinked a couple of time, trying to focus his vision.

He was surprised to see two people sitting at either side of him.

"Are you eating jello?" he asked seeing the pot. "Is there more jello?"

"Not that I know of. But if there is, I call dibs" she replied, eating the last spoon from the pot she had. "This is surprisingly good. Hospital food is usually crap". Morgan sat there, watching the interaction between Reid and the girl whose name he _still_ didn't know. Reid looked tired. His movements were slow and his eyelids were drooped.

"Rae, what are you doing here?" Reid asked.

"I'm here to go from room to room to steal jelly", she replied deadpanned. "I came to see you _obviously. _You had me worried there for a while. I thought we had agreed that only I was allowed to kill you?" Reid smiled tiredly and turned to Morgan.

"What happened?"

"You're gonna be alright kid. We got Brown. It's over". Morgan saw the doctor pass and called to her:

"Hey Doc, look who's awake". Reid tried to sit up when she walked into the room but was too weak and was unable to.

"Not so fast", she said smiling to him.

"How's Abbey?"

"She's on the mend, so are the other three. You were right about where to look for the cure". Rae stood up out of her chair and picked up her shoes and the empty jello for disposal.

"I'm gonna head now Spence. I'll leave you to talk to Mr Morgan and I'll call in either later today or tomorrow". She walked over to Reid again and kissed him on the forehead.

"Bye Rae", he said quietly. Rae nodded and walked out of the room. The room was quiet as the watched her leave, still in just her socks. Morgan turned to Reid, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

"Why was Dr Nichols making anthrax in the first place?" Reid asked, bringing the conversation back on topic. He had seen Morgan's expression but was too tired to get into it at that moment. He knew though, that Morgan wouldn't drop it and he was going to have to explain eventually.


	2. Chapter 2

"So Reid," Morgan said casually, "who's your lady friend?" Reid rolled his eyes, smiling slightly, as he sat into the passenger's seat of Morgan's car. Morgan had obviously been waiting to ask him about Rae since he'd met her but he had waited until now, having just pulled out of the hospital to bring it up.

"She's just a friend", he replied. " I met her a few years ago".

"Aw, come on man!" Morgan glanced to his right, "I need more than that! Give me some details. Where did you meet? Why have we never heard of her before?" Reid sighed. He had intentionally never introduced her to the team (well, except Garcia but that was completely beyond his control. She was a force a be reckoned with). He needed a life outside the job. He enjoyed his time spent with Rae immensely. She always distracted him with meaningless discussions on pros and cons of the new Star Trek franchise, on why she thinks curry is amazing ("It goes with everything!") and why matching socks were 'stupid'. She had such a knack for cheering him up. Plus, she never got annoyed or disturbed by his spouting of random facts; she actually found them interesting. She had love of gaining new knowledge, even if it was useless to her. She was his best friend.

"I guess I just try to keep my personal life outside of work". Reid looked out the window as he spoke. Morgan seemed to understand what he wasn't saying.

"Alright man. I get it," he said pacifyingly. "You gotta tell me something though, where's she from? That accent's been bugging me."

"She moved over from Ireland three years ago."

"Ah British. Not very obvious". Reid snickered, eliciting a "what?" from Morgan.

"Just never call her British when she's around. It seems to be a sore spot for the Irish. They never really got over being part of he British Empire. Which is a bit more understandable considering they didn't achieve independence until 1921, less than one hundred years ago and not all of the country was given back. Six of its counties are still under English rule".

"Alright, alright. No calling her British". The conversation subsided for a while. Morgan was trying to figure out whether or not there was more than just friendship to his relationship with Rae. Reid had never mentioned any fiends outside the team and now this girl shows up, a hot girl at that. He decided after some deliberation that the best course of action was to be direct.

"Is she your girlfriend?" Reid blinked at the abrupt question.

"She's my best friend" he answered with conviction.

"Alright man." He couldn't deny, He was intrigued by her. She was beautiful, funny and obviously intelligent if she was friends with Reid. Pulling up outside of Reid's apartment block, he turned to him. " Remember to take it easy: doctor's orders."

"I will Morgan. Thanks for driving me". Reid closed the car door and walked inside his building. Morgan drove off, a certain brunette preoccupying a corner of his mind.

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A/N I had to re-upload this chapter due to issues with the format; sorry about that.

Thank you for all the Favourites, Follows and views. Feel free to message or review suggestions.

I hope you enjoy!

Cs


	3. Chapter 3

Rae looked up from the book in her lap when she heard the door open to the apartment. Knowing it could be only Reid, since it was his apartment, she immediately got up from her place on the couch and headed to the kitchen and stuck the kettle on to boil and turned on the coffee machine. She had insisted that Reid have a kettle in his apartment, she found the idea of heating tea in the microwave preposterous. She also made sure he was always stocked up on her favourite brand of tea. Reid didn't even drink tea but that fact was irrelevant to her. In return, she had purchased a coffee machine for her own apartment and learned how to use it.

Reid walked into his kitchen, having dumped his bags on the couch, just as Rae grabbed two mugs from the cupboard. She was wearing her 'outside pyjamas' as she called them; they're as comfortable as pyjamas but acceptable to wear outside your apartment. She wore black leggings and a loose red top with sleeves as far as her elbows. Her hair was in a messy bun and she was barefooted, having dumped her shows somewhere when she left herself into his apartment.

"Tea or coffee?" she asked. He smiled.

"Coffee, please". She always asked him which he wanted even though she knew he didn't drink tea. It was just a quirk of hers. He sat at the kitchen table and she carried the two mugs over. They sat across from each other holding their mugs in two hands. Rae sighed deeply after taking a sip from hers.

"How are you feeling?" she asked after a few minutes.

"I'm fine". Rae scoffed and looked at him incredulously.

"Bullshit!" she sang. "Tell me the truth".

"I'm tired", he replied, giving in. "Like, my body is weary. And my lungs feel like they're cold". She nodded along.

"That won't last long. For the tiredness, I suggest sleep when you can and eat lots of fruit and drink water. Lay off the coffee, or at least don't drink as much. There's not much you can do for the lungs. Keep taking the tablets from the doctor and take long, hot showers: the steam helps".

"Yes, nurse", he replied jokingly. She chuckled.

"We both know I would make a terrible nurse. I don't have the interest or the patience. I speak from experience. Not that I've had this super-secret illness that affects your lungs that you're not allowed to tell me about because it's confidential, which I get, obviously. I just mean I know what having difficulty breathing is like and...", she stopped as she noticed him smirking behind his mug. "...And I'm rambling." She smirked back at him and took a sip of tea.

"How long have you been here?" Reid asked, changing the subject.

"A little over an hour. I came over after I showered after work to clean up the place since I knew you'd be home at some point. When I finished I was reading one of your books I saw around the place".

"Which one?"

"The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes. You know, the genetics one by the mathematician. One of the lecturers mentioned it when we covered genetics when I was at school back when I was a first year! I always liked it but I need to refresh myself on the topic or I won't understand any of it".

"That's not my book," he told her. "It's yours. You left it here five months ago because you didn't want to carry all the books you bought home after you went to that college bookshop a few blocks over." She actually owned quite a few of the books in his apartment. She was over so often she just left things behind her.

"Yay!" she exclaimed, "Now I don't have to ask to borrow it!" Reid shook his head. Rae stood up and brought the two empty mugs to the sink and washed them out.

"Morgan was asking about you," Reid mentioned hesitantly. Rae faced him with an apologetic look on her face.

"I'm really sorry Spencer, I know you didn't want your work friends to meet me. I didn't even think about showing up at the hospital, I was just worried when I got the call saying you were in the hospital."

"It was bound to happen. I mean I've known you for years now. It's fine. I just don't want you to be in danger because of my work". He looked down at his hands, unable to look her in the eyes. He felt her move over to him and kneel down beside him.

"So Agent Morgan knows you have a live outside of work! What harm? That's now two people out of your entire team in three years. I think we're gonna be ok." He looked up at her and smiled. "Besides," she continues, smirking, "we have some Doctor Who episodes to catch up on!" At this, Reid laughed. She stood up and pulled him towards the couch by the hand. He sat down while she turned on the TV. She sat down next to him and rested her head on his shoulder.

"I'm glad you're ok Spence," she whispered quietly. He smiled and took her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"Me too Rae".

Rae walked back into the sitting room. Reid had fallen asleep during the second episode. She had carefully gotten up off him as to not wake him up. After turning off the tv she went into his bedroom and grabbed the soft, red and mismatched bed throw and covered him with it. It was just after two o'clock so she had gone into the kitchen to make him lunch for when he woke up. He needed to eat well to help him recover, plus she'd always been a mother hen; so much so that her roommates had called her 'Mam' in college.

Having placed the meal, a basic stir-fry she managed to put together with the few ingredients she found in the lacking fridge, she placed a glass of water and his medication on the coffee table in front of him. She left a brightly coloured sticky-note next to it telling him she'd gone home and there was food in the fridge. She put on her coat and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead before leaving to go home.

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A/N This if kind of a filler chapter. I haven't decided what pairing to go with yet, so let me know what you think. Also, I'm not American so if I get anything wrong let me know.

Thank you for Favourites, Follows and Views.

Feel free to share suggestions.

I hope you enjoy.

CS


	4. Chapter 4

The team had just finished a long case and all headed home. It was only mid afternoon so Morgan decided it was a good time to bring his car to the garage to replace the tires. He had noticed the friction was lacking recently but he often worked during normal opening hours, making it difficult to bring the car in.

He puled in outside the garage that was near his favourite coffee shop, he'd kill time in there while he waited. The front of the building looked small but it was adjoining a much bigger garage. Walking in the front door, he was met with a small receptionist desk. The woman sitting behind it was in her late thirties and had her hair in a tight bun. Judging by the amount of filing cabinets and the laptop on her desk, Morgan assumed she doubled as a secretary as well.

"Good afternoon, sir. My name is Anne-Marie. How may I help you?" she spoke looking up from the papers in front of her.

"My name is Derek Morgan I rang in about getting my tires changed", he replied.

"Of course ,Mr Morgan. Could you please fill out the form please and i will contact one of our mechanics for you to speak to". She handed him the form and he sat on the row of chairs adjacent to the desk. Anne-Marie picked up the phone next to her, pressed one button and spoke: "Is she in?" Morgan couldn't hear the reply but turned back to his paperwork when she said "ok" and hung up the phone.

"Mr Morgan?" Anne-Marie called. He looked up at her. "No one is free at the moment but if you'd like to..."

"Shit Marie, I'm sorry I'm late." A woman rushed in the door holding a box and a cup of coffee. "He tried charging me about $100 dollars for some fucking bolts!" The receptionist cleared her throat.

"Ms Riley, we have a customer", she nodded towards him. The woman, Ms Riley, turned to face him. He knew her.

"Rae?"

"Mr Morgan! How are you? What can I do for you?"

"You're a mechanic?"

"Yes", she handed the box to Anne-Marie. "Sort out the receipts in the book can you?" she said aside to her before turning back to face him.

"And you work here?" he questioned perplexed. He found it astounding to have run into this woman again. Sometimes the world seemed like such a small place.

"I do more than that, I own the place", she replied, grinning at his bafflement.

"Of course you do", he muttered to himself. "I need to get my tires changed. They're getting a bit bald".

"Right-O", she nodded, " can i take a look at it? It may not be necessary to replace all of them. Give me two minutes". She walked through a door a few feet from the desk. Morgan had finished his form and had picked up his jacked when she came back through the door, jeans and shirt now covered up in a pair of navy overalls. She beckoned towards the entrance, " shall we?" and walked out after him.

Morgan pulled up in his parking spot outside the BAU. He had collected his car that morning, Rae had taken it over night so she could change the tires and have the car ready for him to take it to work the next day. She had told him that all the tires need not be replaced as they weren't so bad yet but he had decided it was best to get them all done at once.

He still wasn't sure what to think of Reid's friend. He had no qualms in admitting he was very surprised she was a mechanic. As a friend of their resident genius he expected something equally as high profile as his job. 'Normal' people were usually rubbed the wrong way by Reid's intelligence and social awkwardness. He wondered briefly if she had difficultly with people who that she would be sub-par as a mechanic considering she is a woman doing a 'man's job'. He knew the premise was ridiculous. One's gender does not affect their ability to do their job. Plus, in knowing Garcia, it would be foolish to underestimate a woman for being the 'weaker sex'; she was a tornado and hurricane rolled into one. She was scary good at what she did.

Morgan nodded to Rossi as he walked to his desk. Prentiss was laughing with JJ across the room and Reid stood nearby at the coffee machine. Walking up to him he said,

"I met the most interesting mechanic yesterday". Reid turned around and sighed.

"This another story of your debaucherous exploits?" Prentiss teased, having become interested in the conversation.

"Wouldn't dream of it", he smiled, " she's Reid's lady friend".

"What? Who?" JJ asked, eyes darting to Reid's resigned face.

"I saw her first when I visited Reid at the hospital and now she's just become my new favourite mechanic", he grinned. Reid had yet to say anything, he was just watching the conversation. Prentiss raised her eyebrow.

"So you're telling me a girl visits him at the hospital, someone we've never heard about, and you don't feel the need to tell me? Reid, have you a girlfriend? Who is she?"

"Who's who?" Reid groaned as Rossi had chosen to join the conversation.

"Reid's got girlfriend" JJ chirped with a huge grin, enjoying Reid's embarrassment.

"She's not my girlfriend", he cut in but they were barely paying him attention as they continued to joke around.

"Does she like your Star Trek thing?" Prentiss quipped leading Reid to roll his eyes. Today was going to be a long day.

A/N Wow I take ages to update. Its's so typical of me. Nothing for ages and then I'm suddenly inspired to write a week before exams. I'm a terrible student.

Thanks for the reviews, favourites and follows.

Feel free to make any suggestion, I could do with some ideas.

Thanks for reading,

CS


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